Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/182

170 of the olden abode of the founders of Rome on the Palatine, which was twice burnt in the reign of Augustus, but the commemoration of which was dear to the powers that were in Propertius's day:—

The Parilia, or Palilia, were the rural festival already described in the third chapter of the sketch of Tibullus (p. 126), and a contrast is intended here between the rude bonfire of early days and the later lustration, for which the blood of the October horse was de règle. The poet proceeds to surround early Rome with all the proud vaunts of its legendary history—its Dardan origin, its accretions from the Sabine warriors and